Marquette senior guard Andrew Rowsey liked being back in the friendly confines of the BMO Harris Bradley Center on Tuesday night.
After struggling with his shot over the Golden Eagles' two-game road trip, Rowsey scored 31 points to lead MU to an 84-64 upset victory over Seton Hall.
The victory over the Pirates (14-3, 3-1 Big East) stands as the signature moment of the season for the Golden Eagles (12-5, 3-2). Seton Hall is ranked No. 15 in the USA Today coaches poll and 13th by The Associated Press.
Rowsey couldn't have gotten off to a better start against Seton Hall after shooting 6 of 24 during MU's trip. He was 2 of 12 against Villanova in the Golden Eagles' last game.
That was quickly forgotten as Rowsey scored MU's first 11 points. He shot 5 of 6 before getting a breather at the 12:24 mark.
"It's always good being back home. It's always a confidence-booster," Rowsey said. "I think it really got me going, just having our fans here in a comfortable environment."
BOX SCORE: Marquette 84, Seton Hall 64
In MU's last home game, Rowsey scored 35 points on 9-of-18 shooting in a 74-65 victory against Georgetown on Dec. 30.
He shot 10 of 18 against Seton Hall, including 4 of 8 on three-pointers. He also made all seven of his free throws and is 33 of 33 from the line in MU's last six games.
Rowsey has scored 30 or more points in four games this season.
While Rowsey carried the offense, center Matt Heldt helped spark MU's most inspired defensive effort of the season.
Matched up with one of the best centers in the nation in Seton Hall's Angel Delgado, Heldt had nine points and seven rebounds.
Delgado, who came into the game averaging 14.6 points and 11.8 rebounds per game, finished with 12 and 10.
"When he caught it, Sam (Hauser) was able to double. We wanted to double and get the ball out of his hands. And if not, I just really had to work my (expletive) off to make it tough for him and not get offensive rebounds," Heldt said.
The Golden Eagles also limited Seton Hall's high-scoring duo of Khadeen Carrington and Desi Rodriguez to a 23 points on 10 of 27 shooting. They came into the game averaging a combined 33.7 points per game.
A big part of that perimeter defense was freshman guard Greg Elliott. Coming off strong efforts against Villanova's Jalen Brunson and Providence's Kyron Cartwright, Elliott was also impressive against another one of the Big East's best in Carrington.
"My job was to keep him out of the paint, use my length when he'd shoot the three to contest it," Elliott said.
The Golden Eagles also used a team effort to limit one of the country's top offensive rebounding teams to just eight.
"When you look at the stat sheet, it's not like one guy had 16 rebounds," MU coach Steve Wojciechowski said. "The entire group had to come up with boards. And our guys did that.
"Andrew had five defensive rebounds. Greg Elliott had five defensive rebounds. And when you're getting those kind of rebounding numbers from your guards, that really helps out our big guys because it is very difficult to block out Delgado and then go get it."
Hauser led MU with eight rebounds.
MU sophomore guard Markus Howard scored 12 points after compiling 89, including a school-record 52 against Providence, on the two-game trip.
This time, it was Rowsey's turn to shine.
"Andrew didn't play his best game in the last game," Wojciechowski said. "I thought he came out aggressive but not reckless. Andrew gives us a swagger and we need that from him and today he certainly got us off to a good start. When he does that other guys get confidence from him."
Rowsey agrees with that assessment.
"That's just how I play and when I don't play like that, I feel like I'm hurting our team," he said. "So for me it's just playing with that swag and having that confidence and energy and spreading that throughout the team."